In large complex information technology (IT) infrastructures, challenges exist in controlling and testing what is referred to as a “switched fabric” or “switched fabric network.” A switched fabric is a computer network topology where many devices connect with each other via switches (also referred to herein as switching points, nodes or directors). Switched fabric networks are different from typical hierarchical switched networks (e.g., Ethernet) in that switched fabric networks naturally support redundant paths between multiple devices, forming a mesh network with devices being on the “edges” of the mesh. One of the advantages of this topology is failover, meaning that in case one link breaks or a switch is out of order, datagrams (e.g., packets) can traverse alternate paths. Another is scalability, meaning that more switches can be added as the number of endpoints increases so the route length (and thus, latency and throughput) can remain constant for point-to-point datagrams.
One of the challenges in implementing and maintaining a switched fabric is the fact that many different devices must be able to talk to each other via the various switching points. Accordingly, there are many possible states for all of the switching points, which make configuring the switched fabric error prone. Currently, there exist no automated solutions for controlling and testing switched fabric networks.